Mykonos

Mykonos lies between Tinos and Naxos. An island with very little vegetation, it has an area of 85 sq. km, a shoreline of 80 km, and a population of 5,500. Picture in your mind's eye a deep, blue sea, covered with white waves, and set in it a bare island bathed in sunlight. Add to this a fishing harbor with caciques of every color and an all-white town rising up the hillside from the sea shore. On the right of the harbor the houses come down to the sea's edge. Everything is in contrast: the white houses and the blue sea, the multi-colored window frames -a contrast in atmosphere which gleams with the freshness of the sea. This is the Venice of Greece.


The capital, Hora, with its colorful harbor in which little fishing-boats nestle happily side by side with luxury yachts, presents quite a different picture from the majority of Aegean island towns. While it is usual for island villages to be built on natural amphitheatrically sites, Mykonos is spread out over a flat area and conveys an impression of solid aesthetic cohesion.
On the low Kastro hill is the complex of churches known collectively as Our Lady of 'Paraportiani', a superb arrangement of whitewashed masses created over the centuries and now recognized as a national cultural monument.


The domes and crosses of the innumerable churches stand out among the dazzlingly white houses, which are like cubes. And at the top of the hill, imagine that there are picturesque windmills with the breeze in their white sails. All the alleyways of the town are paved and all the joints between the paving stones whitewashed. Every alley is a painting, every corner a revelation. Along the whitewashed streets stand brilliant white box-shaped houses with stepped walls for sitting on, wooden doors and windows and brightly-colored balconies. These are interspersed with small but impressive churches, pretty little taverns and shops selling souvenirs and other goods. The overall sense is like being inside a film set.

Mykonos is also famous for its small family chapels which are usually opened on the feast day of the attendant saint, or to commemorate another important day in the family history. A charming chapel stands at the end of the harbor, waiting for last-minute prayers of sailors before sailing on the often-rough waters of the central Aegean. Others are in the heart of the busy, secular streets of the Venetian area.

Shopkeepers open their establishments early on Sundays. The visitor can see one of Mykonos' famous icon makers and peak into his studio. The walls are decorated with magnificent works of art in the Byzantine style, each an original. Beautiful icons of St. George and the Dragon and of the saints are on display. A few doors down the visitor comes upon a leather shop featuring expertly-made handmade leather handbags and sandals, side by side with harnesses, vests, gloves, and ominous-looking whips.